Digital media players provide an easily customized, and increasingly ubiquitous, personal environment for experiencing digital media. Digital media players include units dedicated strictly to media playback, particularly digitally recorded music or video; hybrid units that provide media playback as part of a suite of functions, such as “smart” mobile telephones with integral media players; and virtual units that are implemented wholly in software for execution on a personal computer or similar device. Other digital media players are possible.
A portable digital media player for personal music enjoyment is illustrative of the features sets offered. For example, a digital media player could be loaded with an entire music collection and a music listener could choose music to play based on title, artist, genre, composer, album, or other criteria. The listener could also create play lists thematically organized for exercise, commute, home, or other purpose. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a prior art personal music environment 10. A typical portable digital media player 11 uses either solid state memory or hard disk storage to store a collection 12 of recorded digital media 13, and other data, such as a user profile. A user interface 14 provides tactile or voice controls 15 to select and play the media 13, and a display or other indication 16 that the media 13 is being played or viewed. The capabilities of the user interface 14 can vary, depending upon the size and form factor of the player 11. A data interface 17 allows the player 11 to upload the media 13 from external sources 18 and to synchronize data. The data interface 17 provides wired or wireless interconnections to host computers or network servers and can be data- or cellular-network capable. Other components are possible.
Conventionally, recorded digital media 13 must first be uploaded onto a digital media player 11 from an external source 18 before becoming available for selection or playback. Music packaged in physical form 19, such as cassette, LP record, or CD, must first be converted into compatible digital format, frequently requiring playback equipment and a personal computer. The proliferation of high bandwidth network access 20, such as the Internet, and the adoption of digital encoding allow media 13 to be purchased online and shared electronically through digital media stores 21 and similar online enterprises. Personal music composition software 22 provides a further source of media 13 for online sharing and critique.
Despite their conveniences, digital media players have their limitations. Discovering media beyond the scope of the stored media remains a process divorced from player usage. For instance, fellow aficionados must share their media recommendations by word of mouth or written message and the recipient must then separately find and review the media, after which the media must still be uploaded before finally becoming available. Moreover, musical tastes are notoriously subjective and dependent on mood, timing, locale, and other factors. Thus, a media recommendation recipient may not be open to suggestion at the time of receipt, thereby further alienating media discovery from player usage. As well, adding media encountered in the ambient environment to a stored collection requires identifying and remembering enough information about the media to identify the music or work, and later obtaining the media, which is a process generally removed in time, place, and circumstance.
Conventional approaches fail to adequately facilitate media discovery by digital media player users. The iPod digital media player and iTunes client software respectively sold and licensed by Apple Inc. provide full featured digital media playback, and digital media transfer and purchase through an online music store. Media can only be shared if part of the same collection, which is accessed through the client software. In addition, a recently announced collaboration between Starbucks Corporation, Seattle, Wash., and Apple Inc., Cupertino, Calif., enables a user of a Wi-Fi enabled iPod digital media player to find out the title of a song currently being played in a Starbucks café through the tap of a button, after which the song can be purchased and downloaded directly from an online music store. See, e.g., John Markoff, Apple Cuts iPhone Price Ahead of Holidays, N.Y. TIMES, Sep. 6, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. However, the service only operates in participating stores with subscribed iPod players and does not automatically integrate the song title into an existing music collection, absent purchase and download.
The Zune digital audio player and client software respectively sold and licensed by Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash., provide limited wireless file sharing, and digital music purchase through an online music store. Stored digital audio can be shared between Zune users under a “three plays or three days, whichever comes first” policy. The policy is indiscriminately applied to any audio content transferred between players and shared songs expire unconditionally in three days, even if not played. File sharing is limited to other Zune users within physical range, and email, messaging, and recommendations from sources that are out of range remain unavailable. As a result, file sharing remains unappealing.
The MusicGremlin Portable Wi-Fi Device sold by MusicGremlin, Inc., New York, N.Y., provides a portable music player for use with a music subscription service, which allows a user to wirelessly search, play, and download music using the device. Programmed playlists and music purchased through a client personal computer can also be automatically downloaded to the device, and music recommendations can be exchanged with fellow subscribers. However, the device is tied to a specific subscription service. As well, the music recommendations are not contextually integrated into the device's playlist and lack ratings, which would help a recipient to evaluate their overall utility in light of other recommendations and sources.
A metadata sharing application for mobile phones is described in S. Baumann et al., “BluetunA: Let Your Neighbour Know What Music You Like,” CHI 2007 (Apr. 28-May 3, 2007), the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. Users of Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones can share information about their music preferences by allowing other users in proximity of their mobile phone to access information about their play list. However, the information sharing is limited by physical device range and works anonymously, thereby providing information untied to credibility or authoritativeness of the source.
Finally, online music services, such as Rhapsody, licensed by RealNetworks, Seattle, Wash., and Last.FM, licensed by Last.fm Ltd., London, UK, provide personalized music recommendations. Rhapsody offers a subscription music listening service that can provide personal music recommendations. Last.FM builds a profile of a user's musical tastes based on his listening habits as monitored from streamed radio stations or digital music player. The music recommendations, though, are based upon the user's own musical tastes and not evolved from external sources, such as through a social network.
Therefore, there is a need for integrating music recommendation and discovery into a personal listening environment, both in easing the manner of making a music recommendation and in presenting the recommendation to a music listener when most receptive.